So much technology. So little civility.

Or so it seems.

Salt Lake City Mayor Rocky Anderson recently released the contents of his e-mail box to our city hall reporter, Brady Snyder. In case you're worried that the vile or complimentary things you wrote to Anderson will be attributed to you in print here and now, fear not. The names of senders were redacted.

Still, Anderson's e-mail contained some doozies. There were a few bouquets and even thoughtful dialogue on some issues. But others were vile personal attacks. Ad hominem attacks don't require the sender to research an issue or even confine his or her comment to an issue or a policy discussion. Boiled down to their essence, they're words some may have heard or even spoken on our elementary school playgrounds such as "You're stupid." "You smell." or "You're ugly."

What's next? "My dad can beat up your dad"?

It's not my intention to defend Mayor Anderson. Public officials are targets for criticism, praise and everything in between. It goes with the territory.

My beef is with the thoughtless manner in which people use technology that was supposed to enhance how human beings communicate. The great thing about e-mail is that it's fast. The dangerous thing about e-mail is that it's fast. Some people may regret for a lifetime an e-mail sent in a moment of rage. (Unless there's an urgent need to reply to an e-mail, I've taken to writing a response and holding it overnight. Most of the time, I delete my responses.)

We have plenty of examples at the Deseret Morning News of people who write e-mails when they're hopping mad about an issue and write the following day asking to rescind their submission. As quickly as we turn around information at a newspaper, e-mail writers should beware that today's hot-headed rant may well become the stuff of tomorrow's headline.

Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet and American Life Project, told the Deseret Morning News that "people do say things in e-mail that they probably wouldn't say face-to-face or even in a phone call.

"There's more distance. You don't have to see somebody or hear their reaction to what you have to say."

To me, he's saying that e-mail can be a cold and impersonal, even cowardly, way of communicating. It's impossible to know, but I wonder how many people would take the time to write a letter if it meant finding a piece of paper, rolling it into a typewriter carriage, typing their piece, locating an address, addressing an envelope, buying a stamp and dropping it in a post office box. It makes me tired just thinking about it.

Cell phones pose different challenges with civility. Just this weekend, I was party to one side of a nasty family fight while shopping in the produce aisle at Smith's. As I picked among the yellow onions, I got an earful about a sister who seemed to think she was "too good" to have to help out with the family crisis. I didn't intend to get within earshot of the dispute. It came to me as the woman on my end of things stormed across my path.